IBM Watson Created a Modern Sculpture Inspired by the Work of One of Spain's Most Famous Architects

BARCELONA, Spain--IBM has come up with a way to show off the more artistic side of its artificial intelligence capabilities while honoring one of Spain's most famous architects. For this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, IBM tasked its Watson super computer with the understanding Antoni Gaudí's greatest works such as La Pedrera and la Sagrada Família to help create a unique sculpture for the annual trade show. Using its visual-recognition technology, Watson reviewed hundreds of images of Gaudí's buildings, along with additional examples of local architecture to understand trends in composition and inspirations. IBM then tapped Watson's AlchemyLanguage software to read documents about Gaudí and other architects, along with song lyrics and other documents about the city's history and culture. "What we were really trying to do at the essence was figure out if we can programmatically start to understand what the features of a particular style or architect are," said Jeff Arn, a Watson manager at IBM. Watson identified key elements of Gaudí's Catalan modernist style--known for its dream-like colors and shapes and odes to the natural world.